However, assuming Laing passes a physical examination and the Redblacks complete the rest of the process of signing a Canadian Football League player contract, the 25-year-old defensive tackle should be with them for Thursday’s pre-game walk-through and in the lineup for Friday’s regular-season home finale against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

“If he walks through the door, he’s playing, which we fully anticipate happening,” Redblacks head coach Rick Campbell said of the 2012 Toronto Argonauts second-round draft pick who last winter signed a free-agent deal with the Miami Dolphins, but was released from that National Football League club’s practice roster on Monday.

Laing played 44 games as an Argo, compiling 72 tackles and 16 quarterback sacks and forcing two fumbles. Campbell described him as a good player regardless of citizenship, but the Edmonton native’s status as a “national” makes him even more valuable to CFL teams. A TSN report Wednesday said Laing would be paid $25,000 for what amounted to a one-game contract, and he would be eligible for CFL playoff bonuses paid to members of all participating clubs, plus he could become a free agent again during the coming off-season.

The Redblacks made the pitch for Laing as the latest attempt to fire up their pass rush. With one regular-season contest remaining, they rank fifth among the nine clubs with 40 quarterback sacks.

“He was a pain in the butt to play against when he was with Toronto,” Campbell said. “You’re hoping he’s in shape and will be ready to go, which I know he will be. We’re looking forward to having him out there.”

Laing likely would take the roster spot of defensive tackle Zack Evans, expected to be among a sizable number of starters receiving limited playing time or none at all Friday in a game with zero impact on the Redblacks (8-8-1), who have clinched first place in the East and home field for the division final on Nov. 20, but matters significantly to the Blue Bombers (10-7-0) in the West.

For example, Ottawa’s offence is unlikely to feature receivers Brad Sinopoli, Greg Ellingson and Ernest Jackson and more likely to feature practice squad members Joshua Stangby and John Harris and Jake Harty, who is coming off the six-game injured list. Those decisions and many others were yet to be finalized as of Wednesday, but that was how things looked during practices this week.

As well, guard Randy Beardy received snaps with the first-team offence just two weeks after the Windsor Lancers played their last game of the Ontario University Athletics season. A 2016 Redblacks draft pick, he had been on the practice roster until late July, when he was released so he could return to Windsor for his last season of university football.

“Coming in, I didn’t really know what was going to happen, whether I was going to be playing or not,” Beardy said. “Being in the locker room, I can say it matters to us that we win this game. We have another opportunity to beat a team that we can compete against. It’s always fun to do that.”

Stangby played U.S. college football for the Ottawa (Kansas) Braves before having NFL stints with the Atlanta Falcons and Indianapolis Colts organizations. The Redblacks signed him three weeks ago and he has since been acclimatizing himself to the dimensions of the CFL field and its.

“Everything means a lot to this particular team and we look at it like that every single day,” Stangby said. “We don’t think even of the game that’s coming up. We think about this practice today and what we can do out of it the most. I try to take on the same mentality day to day, and I feel like it’s paying dividends.

“You have to take it that way. You have to get the most out of what you’ve got because you never know when it’s going to end.”

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